Wear some bright colors underneath your anorak and galoshes, because winter officially gives way to spring this rainy weekend. As per Friday tradition, we’ve rounded up our picks for COVID-safe things to do that don’t involve your computer, from scooping up spring plants (including free daffodils at Pike Place this Saturday) to supporting AAPI communities and businesses in Seattle, and from the drive-in concert A Night at the Opera: Celebrating Black Voices to watching March Madness games at socially distanced bars like Art Marble 21. For even more options, read our guides to the best online events this week, the best movies to watch this week, and our complete guide to in-person things to do in Seattle.
SPRING
Put your dying Thanksgiving cactus out to pasture and get some new spring flowers and plants. Save for tulips, which don’t bloom until next month, March brings some lovely Washington blooms back into sight, just in time for the equinox on Saturday. The most quintessentially spring-like among them are the pink blossoms steadily filling out cherry and dogwood branches around town, which you can track the progress of via UW’s cherry blossom live cam the Department of Transportation’s interactive tree map. A little to the right of the cherry blossom color spectrum, bright yellow daffodils have also made their return, and so has Daffodil Day (this Saturday), where volunteers hand out bundles of the stuff from Pike Place farmers to anyone who visits the market. (To see more of the flower, keep an eye out for next month’s stationary Daffodil Parades in Puyallup, or visit La Conner Daffodil Festival any time in March.) You could also check out the first of many plant pop-ups at Federal Way’s Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden for rare plants, perennials, succulents, and more from Southend nurseries, or the Spring Plant Sale at Green Lake’s Freeway Estates Community Orchard. Alternatively, if you don’t feel like leaving home, Glasswing is hosting virtual kokedama and terrarium workshops this Sunday, and the Volunteer Park Conservatory is hosting a virtual orchid rescue class on Saturday.
